July 20, 2008

Pol Brennan's Plight

June 25, 2008 Sitting 20 miles inland from the Gulf ofMexico, tiny Turcotte, Texas has seen its share ofhurricanes. However, an unlucky Irishman passing throughthe area five months ago encountered a different maelstrom:new U.S. immigration and Homeland Security realities thathave him jailed at time when his native Northern Ireland isat peace, and Washington hails some of his former IRAcomrades as statesman.

Maze escapee Pol Brennan has been cooling his heels in aTexas immigration jail since being detained at a U.S.immigration checkpoint north of Turcotte on January 27 –this for having a lapsed U.S. work permit.

The fact that Brennan had filed the renewal form on time,and that U.S. authorities simply hadn't updated it at thetime he was stopped, was deemed irrelevant.

So too was Britain's 2000 decision to drop its efforts toextradite Brennan back to Northern Ireland for being one of38 IRA men who escaped the Maze prison in September 1983.

And Homeland Security prosecutors haven't been moved by thefact that federal officials had earlier authorized Brennanto live freely in the San Francisco Bay area for yearswhile awaiting the outcome of his political asylumapplication.

America is far different place today than when Brennan wasfirst arrested in 1993. The U.S. has been waging a "war onterror" since 9/11, and a bourgeoning security apparatusheaded by the Department of Homeland Security looks moreharshly than before at anyone with even the remotestconnection to terrorism.

But "war on terror" realities aren't the chief reason thatBrennan now faces the toughest battle of his 15 yearstruggle remain in the United States and with his Americancitizen wife.

Far more pertinent is the fact that his current deportationcase is being framed by tough 1996 immigration reforms thatscorn most circumstantial considerations and discourage anynuanced interpretations of individual cases by judges.

Like the 'three-strikes-and-your-out' criminal laws sopopular nationwide in the 1990s, the 1996 immigrationreforms mandate black-and-white remedies to deal withundocumented immigrants whose circumstances are can oftencomplicated and mitigating factors.

On the surface, the case against Brennan seems pretty open-and-shut. He has a 1995 felony gun conviction that appearsto disqualify him from staying in the U.S. under anycircumstance under the rules contained in the 1996legislation.

He bought the gun from a licensed dealer in the early1990s. However, by using an alias when buying it, hecommitted a felony.

Given the clichéd depictions of "hardened terrorists"prevalent in pop culture today, it might be presumed thatthe IRA fugitive was "packing" in preparation of shootinghis way out if the feds ever swooped. But Brennan's realitywas much more mundane.

For starters, when the FBI arrested him in January 1993, hedidn't even own the gun anymore. He'd sold it to financehis new hobby: astronomy, which he'd taken up after hiswife bought him a telescopic viewer in the hopes of weaninghim off the target-shooting hobby that she feared wouldcause problems.

"I obtained a pistol for the purpose of target shooting inthe early '90s," Brennan told the Irish Echo, during aphone interview from the Port Isabel Detention Center inLos Fresnos, Texas.

"After the initial fascination wore off, I resold thepistol and bought my first telescope, as my interest inastronomy grew and the opportunity to buy some realobservational equipment meant that I could put my sparetime to better use increasing my knowledge of the nightsky, instead of just punching holes in paper targets," saidBrennan.

But what possessed him to risk buying a gun in the firstplace?

Brennan told the Echo that, having grown up in Belfast'sBallymurphy area - an IRA stronghold that saw daily gunbattles in the early 1970s - he'd grown up viewing gunsdifferently than someone reared in a place like WestchesterCounty, New York or Palm Springs, California.

"It's not unusual for people who grow up around guns toretain an interest in them after their initial exposure,"said Brennan.

"Coming from an unstable situation in my own country whereI was exposed to an underground gun culture that arose indefense of neighborhoods that I grew up in, and beingmechanically-minded, I was drawn to the unique mechanicalsystems of guns."Brennan knows that he made a major mistake in buying thepistol. But he stressed that he believed that he'd alreadypaid his debt to society for the offense.

"When I was fighting my extradition case back in the mid-90s, this gun charge was dealt with by (U.S. DistrictCourt) Judge Charles Legge, who found that I had onlyobtained the said pistol for sporting purposes," saidBrennan. "He gave me six months, time-served, for theoffense. That's where I thought it ended. Apparently not."

The gun issue might have faded away had it not been for theIllegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act(IIRIRA) of 1996.

Passed by a Republican-controlled Congress and signed intolaw by President Bill Clinton, the IIRIRA dramaticallyincreased spending on border enforcement. Outlays fordetention and deportation of illegal immigrants have risenin the intervening years by 750 percent.A central plank of the IIRIRA was its virtually eliminationof any hope of judicial relief from deportation for anyundocumented immigrant who commits a crime in the U.S.

"Since the 1996 immigration reforms, the big crackdown hasbeen on criminal aliens," said Kevin Johnson, a lawprofessor at the University of California at Davis whospecializes in how the "war on terror" has impacted civilliberties and racial profiling.

Johnson said that post-9/11 deportations have risendramatically.

"Every year we're setting records for the number of peopledeported. The last couple of years it's been around 200,000a year," he said.

Professor Johnson said that America has a long history ofenacting

legislation to deal with a perceived threat fromimmigrants, from the Chinese Exclusion Laws of 1882, toCold War provisions that allowed for the deportation ofcommunists and political dissidents.

"And, in some ways, the fear of terrorism, the fear ofcriminal aliens, fits in nicely with the long history ofour response, some would say over-response, to theperceived immigration threat of the day," he said.

Johnson said that the current focus of immigrationenforcement policies is "immigrants who are in the countrywho have committed crimes. And the laws have become harsherand harsher, tougher and tougher."

"If you've got one conviction, maybe you can avoiddeportation. If you've got two convictions, it's harder,"he added. "And if you've got a firearms conviction, it'sgoing to be very, very tough to stay."

Northern Ireland now has an historic DUP-Sinn Fein powersharing government. As one of its leaders, former IRA manMartin McGuinness has been warmly welcomed in the WhiteHouse. Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly, who escaped the Mazealongside Brennan, has also traveled freely to and from theU.S. several times in recent years.

Both men have said that tumultuous events on the ground inNorthern Ireland three decades ago heavily influenced theirdecisions to join the republican movement. And clearlytheir life choices in leaving armed struggle behind infavor of politics have impressed U.S. officials at thehighest levels.

Supporters of Pól Brennan - and one politician now arguingin favor of bail is Congressman Peter King, no soft touchwhen it comes to border security - contend that key eventsin his life, including his 1977 conviction for ferryingexplosives through Belfast, his participation in thegrueling blanket, no-wash and hunger strike protests insidethe Maze, and his subsequent escape, were also shaped bythe troubles.

However, Brennan's war ended when he escaped the Mazeprison nearly a quarter of a century ago.

At 56, he has spent nearly half his time on earth, and theoverwhelming majority of his adult life, living in America.He has been married to an American woman, Joanna Volz, for19 years.

Brennan recently put himself through community college andlater passed a test to become a certified Californiabuilding inspector. He has also taken his passion forastronomy to a higher level by becoming a volunteer atOakland's Chabot observatory, the staff of which sent aglowing character reference letter to judge in his currentdeportation case.

"I was living quite normally, and moving forward, beforeall this happened in January," Brennan told the Echo.

"I feel that, in the circumstances that I'm in now, the gunissue is being used in a more punitive way than in otherways it would have been," he added. "I feel that peoplehave moved on over in Ireland. But, in this respect, I'venot been allowed to. It's like being in a time warp."

IAUC Sponsors Féile An Phobail

July 15, 2008—The Irish American Unity Conference (IAUC) isdelighted to announce its sponsorship of West Belfast's20th Anniversary Féile an Phobail, which will take placethis August 3rd through 10th, 2008, in West Belfast,Ireland.

The community festival was first established in 1988 as adirect response to the conflict in the north of Ireland,and showcases the enormous amount of ingenuity, innovation,energy and passion for positive community developmentthroughout West Belfast. The IAUC is the firstInternational Sponsor of Féile an Phobail.

Féile Director Sean Paul O'Hare commented on thesignificance of the IAUC's support: "We welcome the IAUC asofficial sponsors for our August Féile and we value theirinvolvement in this year's festival. This year has beenparticularly difficult with massive cuts to our funding.However we have come through many years of hardship and yetwe always managed to not only survive but also thrive. Thisyear is no exception."

2008 also marks the 10th anniversary of the Good FridayAgreement and the 25th anniversary of the IAUC. Accordingthe McCabe, though the IAUC will be celebrating theachievements of the past throughout the year, the currentgoals and campaigns of the organization reflect the needfor a new vision of international support for peace withjustice as defined by local communities.

Sponsorship of this year's festival is part of the IAUC'sFair Investment campaign, which was kicked off at ForbairtFeirste's Cultural Economy Conference in West Belfast inMay. "We wanted to showcase this community initiative, andto recognize the important role the Féile has played inpromoting peace building and intergenerationalparticipation at the local level for the past twentyyears," said IAUC National President Kate McCabe.

"We are hoping that through our involvement with thefestival, and our recognition of local efforts in the northof Ireland, we might strengthen the ties between IrishAmericans and Irish communities—particularly those who aremoving the peace process on the ground forward daily inhistorically marginalized areas. It is in these areaswhere the foundations for a secure and lasting peace willbe built." McCabe said.

O'Hare added, "We hope to expand our programme in thecoming years and we especially want to welcome more of ourfriends from the U.S.A. The festival has been to the forein relation to developing positive relations during thepeace process. We create events where all the communitiesof Ireland can come together and debate our differences andthen celebrate our cultures in a positive and productivefashion. So with the support of the IAUC, we will have avery successful festival. We would also love to welcomeeven more U.S visitors to our great community arts party inAugust."